Some good / bad examples?
“With Due Diligence you can determine who is the predator and who is the prey. The answer often comes as a great surprise to both parties.”
A July 4th tragedy occurred when a fireworks event went terribly wrong during set up. A worker, adjusting a mortar, somehow ignited the mortar. That sent a hot round into a truck that transported fireworks, and ignited the unloaded fireworks. Some of these ignited fireworks launched themselves into a van where specialty (larger motor size) fireworks were being kept. A large fireball of fireworks and explosions occurred, severely burning two, one of whom who later died.
The show was contracted by the city where the explosion occurred. The fireworks display company hired had been cited by neighboring city fire departments in previous years for violations, and, as a consequence, this company was not invited to bid on the neighboring cities fireworks displays. The disaster could have been avoided with a simple round of calls to the previous clients of the independent contractor, requiring maybe two hours of work on the telephone.
The moral is that if there is risk involved in a business deal — and there always is — you should exercise due diligence in seeing that all is as it should be. While risk can never be avoided entirely, it can generally be reduced significantly at little cost.
